Monday, February 21, 2011

Playtime and visits with Grandma Pam

Grandma Pam came to visit and the kids had a fun time playing with her! Here are some of the pictures of playtime.

As the kids get older, the basement has become such a great place to ride around on all their vehicles! We currently have 3 scooters, a four wheeler, and a little 3 wheeled motorcycle. Also, Nathan has a riding horse. We have a small riding horse for Elizabeth out in the shop that we need to bring in.


Elizabeth has had a fascination with her tongue lately.

Nathan riding on his horse

Grandma Pam helping Elizabeth make the four wheeler move

Head on collision

Grandma Pam and Nathan working with flashcards and clues

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Garbage truck

Garbage day is always a fun one at our house because Nathan LOVES to watch the garbage man and his truck that picks the trash up. Nathan sits in the window every Thursday morning.

Today, the garbage man came as usual. However, after he picked up the trash, he stopped the truck and came up and rang the doorbell!

He had a toy garbage truck! He had seen it on the boss's desk and asked if he could have it for a little guy.

Wasn't that nice for him to think of Nathan? So now Nathan has a little garbage truck to play with.

Playing on the deck


Elizabeth likes to play on the deck. It's easier for her to walk around. I thought this picture was hilarious!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

3 year olds are so smart!

It's a good thing we have a 3 year old around to make smart decisions for us.

This weekend, Jeremy was going to take Nathan to the dump on Wednesday. We also need a new hot water heater. Ours is 31 years old. We just found the date on the water heater. How did it last 31 years?? Jeremy was going to go get the new hot water heater on Thursday or Friday.

Anyway, Nathan came up with the brilliant suggestion that we get the new hot water heater FIRST and then go to the dump. Then, we can dump the old hot water heater!

If it weren't for him, Jeremy would have went to the dump Wednesday and picked up the new hot water heater Thursday or Friday.

Good thing we have Nathan!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Elizabeth is 1!

Elizabeth turned 1 today.

We had a party. Papa Ray, Kim, Papa Norm, Grandma Jane, Laura and Ava came over for the party. We grilled burgers and had cute cupcakes! It was kind of a Valentine's theme this year. Heart balloons. The cupcakes had pink frosting with heart sprinkles and a candy heart in the middle. Thank you Grandma Jane for making the cupcakes and bringing the balloons! We had plates and napkins with cute hearts.


Flying with Papa Ray. She's wearing her new pink shoes.

Riding on her new scooter.

Eating cake

Let's blow out the "1" candle!

Closeup of the sparkly pink shoes

Elizabeth received a lot of presents!

Opening presents

Elizabeth likes her new ball.

Nathan wanted to be in charge of making "Towers of Presents." He loves building towers!

Grandma Jane and Papa Norm love me!

Building towers

Adorable cupcakes Grandma Jane made

Friday, February 11, 2011

Elizabeth updates at 12 months old!


Elizabeth is now 12 months old! One whole year!

This past month, she has had one big focus. WALKING! Her first step was on Dec 30. From then on, it's been walking practice. She takes these cute little delicate steps. (So different from her older brother who wanted to run and lunge!). She's kept her face from getting all beat up by being careful when learning to walk.

She has a new fascination with shoes. She points at shoes and says "shuu." She loves wearing her shoes and taking them on and off. Grandma got her some new sparkly pink shoes for her birthday that she already loves!

We'll still nursing, but just about done. As of today, we're just nursing once during the day and once at night. She's being quite stubborn about not wanting to drink cow's milk! She's never taken a bottle so we were hoping to get her to drink milk right out of a cup. She'll drink water out of the cup, but refuses milk. We've been able to get her to drink a few ounces of milk a day. Hopefully, once we're done nursing, she'll drink more milk!

She's still up once every night. She goes to bed about 8 and wakes about 8:15 every morning. Usually, she wakes up somewhere between 12:30 and 4. She's still pretty good about taking 2 naps a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. We're out and about a lot during the mornings for preschool and errands, so her morning nap gets interfered with quite often.

She self feeds many different foods. She loves cut up fruit like bananas, pears, and peaches. I cut up cheese for her and she loves that. She eats cheerios and puffs. She also likes to eat whatever we're having for dinner. Sometimes, I don't have to blend it up. Sometimes, I do. If we're having steak, she gets baby food from the jar like "spaghetti" or "lasagna."

She's making her first animal sound. She tries to quack like a duck. Our kids and ducks!

Elizabeth loves going to preschool. We go to preschool for Nathan, but I have to bring her along too. She loves how the older girls dote upon her and shower her with attention and affection. She doesn't get this from her older brother who only touches her when he's shoving her down. If I don't keep my eye on her, I find her eating playdough, but mostly she has a lot of fun. Preschool is from 10-12 twice a week. Her morning nap time is usually around 11:30 so she's pretty fussy for almost the last hour.

She's starting to care a great deal when Nathan takes her toys. She'll just break down and put her head on the ground and cry. She hasn't yet learned to grab it back or anything. Poor thing.

We had her party today. I'll put up a bunch of pictures and write about the party soon!

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Elizabeth's first time walking outside

Elizabeth has been toddling around pretty well for about a month now.

A few days ago, the temperature reached 42 degrees and the sun was shining. It was the first time since early November I've been able to take both kids outside to play! We've taken Nathan in the snow, but Elizabeth hasn't been outside to walk!

She wasn't sure about the slightly uneven ground. That puzzled her a little. She stood quite a lot-hesitant to walk. Eventually she did. She put leaves in the back of a dump truck. She tried to eat snow.

Nathan was having a good time using his toy bulldozer to bulldoze snow!



It's kind of hard to push this lawnmower. I'm a little small.


Hey, I found a truck! I wonder if I can push it?

I know. I'll put leaves in it!

Looking small in the big yard.


"And this, little sister, is how you poke things with sticks."

It's hard to push your truck across ice.

Farm Show

Papa Norm came up this past week to take Nathan and Jeremy to the Ag Expo!

I stayed home with Elizabeth and Grandma Jane, but a wonderful time was had by all!

Nathan had to sit in every tractor and combine. He got to take his first ride on a bus. He actually says that was his favorite part!!

Here are some photos.


This one is the perfect size for Nathan!

Kubotas are his favorites.

Big combines are great fun!

Nathan's first ride on a bus!

Moments to Remember

I’ve been doing a lot of running lately in preparation for Bloomsday. Every other day, I get on the treadmill in the basement and run for between 30-60 minutes.

Jeremy watches the kids and I am off limits! This is pretty unusual as Elizabeth especially always wants me.

So it’s fun to be running and watching them play by themselves or with their Dad.

I’ll be running alone and all of a sudden I’ll see this tiny little thing toddle around the corner holding some sort of toy. It’s so cute to watch kids when they don’t realize you’re doing it! She’ll pick up a phone and jibber jabber into it. She thinks she’s talking to someone.

Nathan will come driving in on his Powerwheel. Usually, the battery is about dead so he’s moving at snail’s pace. It cracks me up! Elizabeth will be toddling behind him easily keeping up or overtaking him. She wants to be on there so badly!

Nathan likes to pretend he’s snowplowing while riding his Powerwheel.

Or I’ll be running along and see a laundry basket with both kids in it zipping by. They’re laughing. Jeremy has pushed them in it. Elizabeth will be standing like she’s driving a chariot and Nathan will be sitting down laughing.

Sometimes, Nathan will come get on his rocking horse right next to me and pretend to ride while I run. It’s cute too!

These are the things I want to remember!

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